Thursday, November 3, 2011

My Third Writers' Platform-Building Campaign is now at an end, and I wanted to let you all know how much fun I've had over the last two months. I've loved getting to know you and I've made some truly awesome friends--and you all know how much this blogging community rocks! I'll be running my Fourth Campaign next year, so keep an eye out for announcements if you want to take part :)

Thanks so much to all who took part in my Third Campaigner Challenge! We had 131 awesome entries and hundreds of people voting on those they liked the best. The time has come to announce the winners, woot! But before I do, did you read my earlier post about publishing your Challenge stories? If you didn't, make sure you pop over to take a look. Cat Gerlach is compiling your stories (if you want one or more of them published) in an ebook, and all proceeds from the sale will be donated to Harry Moseley's cancer research fund. We'd love you to take part, whether you're a winner of a Challenge or otherwise! If you do want to take part, make sure you let Cat know asap, as she'll stop taking entries the day after tomorrow so she can get the ebook published.

The time has come to announce the winners, woot! Winners have been chosen in three categories:

4 People's Choice Awards - chosen by you in the voting (by clicking "Like" on the entries);

12 places awarded by the judges, who've done an absolutely fantastic job of winnowing 131 entries down to the top 11 under the supreme organizational genius of J from Concrete Pieces of Soul; and

5 random prizes (chosen by Mr. Random.org).

Before I reveal the winners, I'd love you all to offer up a huge thanks to J, who has single-handedly administered the judging for this Challenge. I also want to thank the judges, who've generously given their time to choose the entries they think best and most deserving of a prize. And my thanks go again to the awesome people who've helped me out with the prizes for this round: K.T. Hanna, Rachel McClellan, Jeigh Meredith, Claire Hennessy, and Candy Fite. They did an amazing job administering the prizes and communicating with the prize donors (who generously donated the 130+ prizes you've seen be awarded). To say thank you, would you please pop over to all these peoples' blogs and follow them if you haven't already :)

In First Place (tied) Lady Jai has won a choice of Children’s Books or Picture Books donated by Susanna Leonard Hill (in Susanna’s words: Winner can choose what they want: (1) A little kids vehicle package which would include one each of THE HOUSE THAT MACK BUILT, AIRPLANE FLIGHT! and FREIGHT TRAIN TRIP!, all hardcover or (2) two hardcover picture books of your choice (choose from PUNXSUTAWNY PHYLLIS, NOT YET ROSE, CAN'T SLEEP WITHOUT SHEEP and APRIL FOOL PHYLLIS - one each of two different titles or 2 copies of the same title))

In First Place (tied) K.T. Hanna has won a partial manuscript critique (up to 25 pages) or query critique donated by S E Sinkhorn from Maybe Genius

In Second Place Jessica McKendry has won a critique (25 pages) donated by Rachele Alpine from Freckle Head

In Third Place Alynza has won a first chapter critique donated by Sheri Doyle

In Fourth Place David Powers King has won a signed hardcover book “Hideaway” by Dean Koontz donated by Roland Yeoman from Writing in the Crosshairs (US/Canada shipping only)

Judging Round

The prizes below have been awarded based on the standard of your entries, as judged by a panel of judges (and thank you to everyone who volunteered!). Once the judges had determined the 11 Finalists, I decided which place each Finalist would be awarded. And boy was it hard, the entries were all SOOOO good!

Fully guided private tour of West Ireland + guest room for one night donated by Fiona Claire from The Ageless Druid (Fiona says: I am a professional tour guide, living in and writing about Ireland. I can offer a fully-guided private tour in the west of Ireland (valued at 150 Euros), as well as a lovely guest room for one night. If any of your authors are writing about Ireland, this might be a big help for them).

In Second Place Avery Marsh has won:

Editing (4 hours) donated by Bill Jones from This Page Intentionally Blank (Bill says: I can offer up to 4 hours' worth of editing services. I'm a Grammar Guerilla, probably useful to those grammatically challenged writers).

Book (PDF) “Ultimate Justice, A Trey Fontaine Mystery” written and donated by Ryder Islington from Ryder Islington’s Blog

Book “Ribbon of Darkness” written and donated by Julie Coulter Bellon from LDSWriterMom

Kathy McKendry - Book donated by Scott Stillwell from Just a few lines… (US/Canada shipping if poss) (Scott says: The winner can choose one of the following: "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline or "Peter Nimble and his Fantastic Eyes" by Johnathan Auxier)

I want to make a correction on the title of "Thanks to Tank" the prize I'm giving away. It was written by Maureen Howard not Bobbi Carducci. I made a mistake when I said that. Bobbi is president of the Young Voices Foundation that held the contest of children's stories by kids and I got mixed up when I stated the author. Please accept my apologies. Of course the prize is just as good as ever. Thanks, Clarbojahn

Congrats to Grillyfish and all the winners! And thanks to Rachael for all the wonderful challenges and for hosting the author campaign!

Oh my! Thankyou so much. I just heard through an online friend on facebook. My emails are overrun of late so hadn't got through them..... Big Thankyou and hug to you and all the judges, to J and to all the other winners and everyone that took part to make this such an awesome campaign. I really had no idea what I was getting into, but amazed even myself at what I could do. Thankyou, thankyou.Will certainly look forward to the next one.

Thank you so much, Rach! (Also, thanks to the judges who put me through and those who donated prizes.) I really, really appreciate it. This Campaign has been nothing short of fantastic, and it's all due to your hard work. I've made so many new friends and found so many new blogs to follow. I can't express my gratitude enough.

Thank you so much, Rachael, and to all the judges and readers! And congratulations to all the winners and all the participants!

I hope I speak for many when I say that this campaign has really made a difference in my life, from the people I've met, to the things I've learned about the industry, to the other blogfests I've learned about on your campaign notice board, and finally to the positive influence on my own writing!

If you hadn't run this campaign, none of this would have happened for me. :)

And while I might still be planning a trip to Ireland, I would not have gotten the opportunity for a personalized tour and a place to stay! Excellent research for my historical novel, in any case.

Thank you for all your hard work on this campaign and all the time you've devoted to it. It's been a fantastic way to connect with other writers and just all around fun! Congratulations to all the winners too!

Rachel, you are seriously my hero. What a wonderful campaign. I made lots of new friends, and you provided a wonderful way to launch my new blog. I will definitely be back next year! Many, many thanks.

Congratulations to all the winners. Thank you soooo much for organizing this fabulous Campaign, Rachael. It has been amazing. I love blogging and have found some excellent blogs to follow. Cannot wait til the next one (although also looking forward to a bit of a break - it has been quite intense!). Thanks again, enjoy your break.

Rachael Harrie

I write YA Horror, Dark Fantasy, and Psychological Thrillers, and spend my day imagining evil plot twists and psychotic characters. When I'm not thinking up ways to make you squirm, you'll find me blogging up a storm (with the occasional Twitter and Facebook foray as well), planning for my next Campaign, wondering whether to make Write Hope a permanent fundraiser for charity, counting down the days to the next WriteOnCon, and diving into another round of critiques with my CPs.

I blog on every second Monday. And other times as the whim takes me :)

My WIP - DARK

Sixteen-year-old Sydney Price is blinded by the radical group Dark, who demand that she betray her scientist brother if she wants to save his life.

Top Writing Blog Award Finalist

Writers' Platform-Building Campaign

Member of SCBWI

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